Country Natural Beef

Country Natural Beef started with 14 ranching families marketing 200 head of natural beef cattle in 1987. In recent years, the cooperative has nearly 100 member ranches in multiple states that raise more than 100,000 brood cows, manage more than 6 million acres of land and sell almost $50 million of products.This rancher cooperative is consumer driven, producer controlled, helps ranching families retain “every possible bit of independence,” keeps administrative costs to a bare minimum, pays operating costs from a percentage of producers’ revenue instead of borrowing operating funds and sets stable prices based on production costs, a return on investment and a reasonable profit.

Current funding support provided by United States Department of Agriculture, National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) through the Multistate project, NC-1198, “Renewing an Agriculture of the Middle: Value Chain Design, Policy Approaches, and Environmental and Social Impacts” (2012 -2017).